Putin apologises but stops short of taking responsibility for Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash

Flight J2-8243 crashed on Wednesday in a ball of fire near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan after diverting from southern Russia where Ukrainian drones were reported to be attacking several cities.

Berlin — President Vladimir Putin of Russia on Saturday apologized for the crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines plane this past week, breaking the Kremlin’s three-day silence on the accident that claimed the lives of 38 people. He did not explicitly acknowledge Russia’s responsibility for the crash.

Putin “offered his apologies” for the crash in a phone call to his Azerbaijani counterpart, Ilham Aliyev, the Kremlin said in a statement. Putin told Aliyev “that the tragic incident took place in Russian airspace,” according to the statement. The phone call was initiated by the Russian leader, the Kremlin said.

Putin said that as the plane approached its scheduled destination of Grozny, in southern Russia, Russian air defenses had begun to repulse an attack by Ukrainian drones on the Grozny airport and others nearby, according to the Kremlin. The statement stopped short of attributing the crash to a Russian air-defense missile, a cause that investigators in Azerbaijan have focused on.

Azerbaijan’s presidential office confirmed that Putin had offered apologies to Aliyev, but suggested that the blame lay with Russian air defenses.

“President Ilham Aliyev emphasized that the Azerbaijan Airlines passenger plane encountered external physical and technical interference while in Russian airspace, resulting in a complete loss of control,” Azerbaijan’s presidential office said in a statement. The plane “was able to make an emergency landing solely due to the courage and professionalism of the pilots,” the statement added.

Aliyev called for a thorough investigation and for “ensuring those responsible are held accountable.”

The theory that a Russian missile caused the crash has also received support from aviation experts and US officials.

The Embraer 190 airliner was traveling from Baku, Azerbaijan, to Grozny, but was diverted from its path. It eventually crashed in Aktau, Kazakhstan, after crossing the Caspian Sea. More than half of people on board were Azerbaijani citizens. Seven Russians and six Kazakhs died in the crash.

Putin said Russia had opened a criminal investigation into the crash, according to the Kremlin, and was hosting Azerbaijani investigators in Grozny. The Kremlin’s statement tried to project a united front among the three nations most affected by the crash.

“The relevant agencies of Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan are closely cooperating on the site of the catastrophe in the area of the city of Aktau,” the Kremlin statement read.

Aliyev’s more accusatory, strongly worded statement, however, presents the first public crack in the Kremlin’s attempts to control the narrative.

Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan have long tried to build economic ties to the West and shed the Russian colonial legacy — without antagonizing the Kremlin. The two former Soviet states have taken a neutral stance on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, benefiting from growing trade with Russia without directly supporting the Kremlin’s war aims.

Still, the Kremlin’s apology without accepting responsibility complicates these countries’ efforts to maintain friendly relations with the Kremlin without appearing weak to their citizens and the world, analysts said.

The Kremlin’s acceptance of responsibility is particularly important in Azerbaijan because Aliyev has personally apologized to Putin for the Azerbaijani military’s erroneous downing of a Russian military helicopter in 2020. At the time, Azerbaijan swiftly took responsibility and offered compensation for the accident, which claimed the lives of two Russian servicemen.

Aliyev most likely expected a similar response now from the Kremlin, said Zaur Shiriyev, an Azerbaijan expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a policy research organization.

Putin’s statement “is a textbook example of a non-apology apology,” Shiriyev said in a written response to questions. “There was no direct acceptance of responsibility, no offer of compensation, and no commitment to hold those responsible accountable.”